Archimedes Plutonium wrote in message ...
Tue, 16 Nov 2004 17:24:44 GMT Christopher Green wrote:
(big snip)


No, commercial locust bean gum comes from carob (Ceratonia siliqua).
Honey locust pods are edible, but to my knowledge are not used
commercially, as carob is of higher quality and long cultivated for
this and other purposes.

I could have sworn for sure that it was Locust trees that provided the commercial
bean gum used for food additive. That would be an embarrassing moment if I
turned up at a Farm Mill with a truckload of honeylocust beans to sell into the
Commodities Market.

Locust is also another name for the carob tree. Carob is a tree of
ancient domestication, so it goes by several names.



Another question: Oak acorns I believe were used as a substitute for wheat flour to make bread in the old pioneer days. But I
wonder if eating oak acorns is unhealthy due to the tannins. Has anyone measured the relative food value of oak acorns to that of
wheat?

Lots of people. Pioneers learned to prepare acorns from the Indians,
who had lived on acorns for thousands of years. Probably the greatest
authority on the subject of acorns as food is Julia Parker; see Ortiz
and Parker, "It Will Live Forever: Traditional Yosemite Indian Acorn
Preparation" (Heyday Books).

Acorns from low-tannin species of oak are more palatable, but all
acorns need to be leached to extract tannins.

Acorns are rich and nutritious food, even if impressively bland; acorn
flour runs about 500 calories/100 grams, largely carbohydrate and
(mostly unsaturated) fat but also some protein (incomplete: it's short
on tryptophan, a common fault of plant protein sources).

Curious question. Does wheat lack tryptophan? Does honeylocust beans
possess tryptophan?

Most plant protein sources are lacking in lysine, tryptophan, or both.
Wheat is especially lacking in lysine. Mixing plant protein sources,
particularly cereal grains and legumes, can compensate for the
deficiency. Thus the agricultural tribes of the Southwest and Mexico
did very well indeed on corn (maize) and beans, supplemented with meat
following a successful hunt (or battle...).

Livestock are occasionally allowed to graze honeylocust, which is
palatable to them. Because of its high tannin content, standard advice
is to limit livestock consumption of honeylocust or carob to no more
than 10% of total forage. Carob, to which honeylocust isn't closely
enough related to extrapolate, has a very high sugar content (to 72%)
and some protein (5% or so).

Acorn woodpeckers have an adaptation that allows them to defeat the
tannins and increase the protein yield of acorns: they harvest and
store acorns, which promptly become colonized by beetle grubs. Then
they eat the grubs. I don't think this approach to enhancing the food
value of acorns would be marketable.

In a sense, modern society is based on wheat, potatoes, rice, corn et al. But I wonder if oak acorns and honeylocust can become one
of the basis points.

Some of the Indians relyed heavily on oak acorns but I wonder if acorns can become what wheat has become.

Not at all likely. The biggest problems would be yield and processing:
you can grow vastly more of any of the cereal grains on the same
acreage, and none of these need extensive processing to make them
nonpoisonous.

Then there's the mouth appeal, or lack thereof, of acorns. If you got
the tannins extracted properly, so they're not bitter, what you're
left with is the quintessence of bland.

Oaks are just productive enough to sustain a hunter-gatherer society
and just palatable enough to be an acceptable alternative to
starvation. They can't be grown or processed economically in large
enough quantities to be a staple in a society in which agriculture is
established and in which land and labor have much value.

Just read in the news today about an estimate that 10,000 species are nearing extinction due to human overpopulation coupled with
global warming. Not only is global warming accelerating but I would then guess that species extinctions are accelerating. One of the
species mentioned on the list was "fir trees". I wonder if oak trees due to diseases is on that list.

Interesting that you should mention fir. Fir bark is also edible and
has been served up as an alternative to starvation in famine
conditions in various societies.

--
Chris Green